How does the semi-final schedule for week one compare to week two?

Week 1 of the 2022 CrossFit Games Semifinals is in the books and Week 2 is here. Today, the focus is on evaluating the schedule for the two Semifinals in week 2 and how they fit in and compare to the first three training slates from week 1. (If you haven’t read the article linked here, it is recommended that you do Many of these topics are discussed in more detail there.)

time domains

When evaluating time domains, we are talking about the expected time domains, not the listed time limits. In the table below, we have updated the time limits (where necessary) to reflect the actual times needed for the top 10 athletes in each event. In the event that it was markedly different for men than for women, list the men first followed by a slash, and then the women.

For the MACC and Cape Town columns, those are the projected expected times for each workout.

Non CF Scheduled Events	Labor union	Lowlands	torian	MACC	Cape Town
E1	10:00/12:00	18:00/20:00	20:30/22:00	13:00	9:00 pm
E2	23:00/25:00	7:00	9:30	23:00	16:00
E3	11:30/13:30	11:00	6 o’clock	12:00	18:00
E4	6:30/7:30	4:00	5 o’clock	7:00	7:00

Some items worth mentioning:

• From week 1 there was variability in terms of time needed between men and women and the four training sessions in relation to the other two; It will be intriguing to see if that is the case for other Semifinals in the future.
• The time domain distribution in the MACC appears to be quite appropriate given the two preprogrammed CrossFit workouts; hit the long, have a short-moderate on the finish and two metcons in the 10-15 minute range.
• Cape Town’s schedule is very long with three workouts expected to take over 16 minutes; so far no other semi has more than one workout like that.

Handstand Walking and Handstand Pushups

Pretty straightforward for the next few sections; all we did was add if MACC and/or Cape Town had the movement listed and in what capacity.

Movement	Labor union	Lowlands	torian	MACC	Cape Town
HS walking	400 feet	72 meters	–	180 feet	60 meters
HSPU	18 definition HSPU (9/6 inch)	60 hspus regular skipping	45 HSPU with strict deficit	–	50 hspus regular skipping

Walking handstand:

• Walking distance to handstands in the Lowlands, MACC and Cape Town are relatively similar.
• Syndicate still had by far the longest distance required to walk in a handstand.
• Torian remains the only Semi so far who hasn’t tried it at all.

Variations of push-ups:

• MACC becomes the first Semifinal not to try push-ups in any capacity.
• Cape Town, like the Lowlands, has a modest number of regular handstand push-ups near the end of the same chipper that also has a handstand walk.

Squat Volume:

Labor union	Lowlands	torian	MACC	Cape Town
150 wall balls	–	–	120 wall balls	100 wall balls
100 thrusters	72 db thrusters	30 thrusters	–	–
6 squat snatches	10 overhead squats	30 overhead squats	60 overhead squats	54 db squat fragments
256 squats	82 squats	60 squats	180 squats	154 squats

wall balls

• After two-thirds of week one, he saw no wall balls and an overall squat volume of less than 100; this week, both Semis have at least 100 wall balls and a total squat volume of over 150.

Propellers:

• There were no boosters available this week after all three Week One Semis featured them.

Overhead Squats/Squat Snatches:

• All five Semis so far feature either a Squat Snatch or an Overhead Squat.
• However, the weight and volume change drastically from Semi to Semi.

muscles:

Movement	Labor union	Lowlands	torian	MACC	Cape Town
muscles	24rms	20/16 BAR essential	30rms	18 rmu and 12 bmu	49 rms

• Cape Town Event 3 features seven rounds of seven-ring muscle ups for men and women; this is extremely aggressive in terms of testing buffing ability relative to any other Semi we’ve seen so far.
• The MACC is testing both ring and barbell muscle-ups in the same workout; they are the first Semifinal this season to do so.

Strange objects:

Labor union	Lowlands	torian	MACC	Cape Town
Tank Thrust (375′)	–	Husafell carry bag	Tank Thrust (640′)	–
Sanbag clean (12 heavy)	Clean Sandbag (30 Moderate)	kb farmers carry	–	slam ball lunges (100)
–	Axle Bar Deadlift (72 Moderate)	yoke	–	–

• Hardly any foreign objects in the second week.
• MACC has Torque Tank Push (just like Syndicate), only it’s almost twice the distance it needs to be pushed.
• Cape Town’s most unusual implement is a slam ball lunge; something new on the Semifinals circuit this week.

Monostructural Elements:

Movement	Labor union	Lowlands	torian	MACC	Cape Town
air runner	–	2400 meters	1500 meters	1600 meters	–
echo bike	60 calories	40/32 calories	30-60 cals (variable)	2 kilometers	–
Rower	2000 meters	600 meters	1000 meters	–	75 calories
Ski	150 calories	–	–	–	1000 meters
double bass	–	–	100	–	–
Swimming	–	–	–	–	500 meters

• The variance here was extreme in week one and has become even more extreme in week two.
• Jumping off the page first has to be the inclusion of swimming in Cape Town. This is the first time that swimming has participated as a qualifier to reach the CrossFit Games. We’re guessing it’ll remain the outlier as the only Semifinal to use it, but time will tell.
• The year continues without double unders in the Semis. Her with only a total of 100 among the five Semifinals so far.
• We now have three Semis who have opted to try running in addition to a CrossFit workout with home and away runs; and two that don’t. We know how important it is to run in the CrossFit Games, so the decision to include or not include a substantial number of races in a Semifinal is an intriguing one.
• In week one, all three Semis rowed for meters; no rowing at the MACC this week, while Cape Town rows for calories
• Cape Town joins the Syndicate as the only two Semi-Finals so far to include skiing; although for Cape Town it is a commitment to swimming training and will probably be almost negligible compared to the swimming ability of the athlete.

The bottom line: As the Semifinals continue to unfold throughout the month, noticing some of the critical differences in the schedule will become more and more fascinating to assess, raising clearer questions about how relevant some of these decisions are. As always, don’t be too quick to judge until you see how it performs in competition. However, there is nothing wrong with observing with a critical mind and making assessments on the nuances of programming on the fly.